...ROWE Program at Best Buy Abstract This paper answers the following questions about the ROWE Program at Best Buy story. 1. Describe the culture of Best Buy. 2. Discuss the approach to organizational change that the ROWE program illustrates. 3. Discuss the resistance, both organization and individual, that the ROWE program had to overcome. 4. Discuss the sources of stress that are apparent in the case. 5. Discuss whether or not the organizational culture has helped with the change. Best Buy implemented the Results Only Work Environment (ROWE) program to promote a work, home, and life balance with a dedication to diversity and personal responsibility. With this implementation they also encouraged creativity and innovation. Creating this type of culture allows people to develop strong, enduring and independent working relationships with both their clients and their colleagues. The main objective is to create team-oriented and collaborative places to work to improve productivity, profits, and provide better customer service. Best buy culture was that of a company that encouraged long hours and direct supervision. They often celebrated these occurrences with rewards and frowned on those who did not participate in “putting their time in” to help the company become more productive. This type of culture was one of the reasons that Best Buy decided to adopt the ROWE program. The implementation of ROWE requires a complete overhaul of people's attitudes...
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...ROWE Program at Best Buy Rachel’Jo Fraser Dr. Trista Avent Leadership and Organizational Behavior December 9, 2011 Describe the culture of Best Buy Organizational culture is the backbone of a business. It is the personality and demeanor that is passed on to the employees. It is the learned values and beliefs of what the corporation should be and these behaviors, beliefs and attitudes are accepted by the employees of the association. The culture of a company is the compilation of rules and traditions. It provides stability as it helps focus its employees behaviors. Initially Best Buy displayed a market culture. The achievement of goals as demanding as they were, they were expected to be fulfilled. Employees were hard driven to accomplish projects and stressed with long demanding ours. Initially the organizational culture included long hours and sacrifices with employees missing out on their family time and important events in their lives and women were accepting reduced pay and part time positions in order to have more time with their families. Employees made many sacrifices included their health in order to meet deadlines and increase productivity. Long hours of sacrifice was considered a part of its culture. “Like many other U.S. companies, Best Buy strives to meet the demands of its business-how to do things better, faster, and cheaper than its competitors-with an increasingly stressed-out workforce”(Hellriegel and Slocum...
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...ROWE Program at Best Buy September 11, 2011 Culture at Best Buy “The nation’s leading electronics retailer has embarked on a radical-if-risky-experiment to transform a culture once known for killer hours and herd-riding bosses (Conlin, M., 2006)”. This experiment was named the ROWE program (Results-Only Work Environment). The program was started at Best Buy’s Minneapolis headquarters in 2003. ROWE is based on 13 principles with the main ones being: • No traditional work schedules. • Judgment-free zone in regards to how colleagues spend their time. • Work is something you do, not where you go. • As long as work gets done, you do what you want. • In a nutshell, no results = no job. ROWE was intended to create a work environment in which employees do not feel overworked by the day’s end. If employees have appointments or other non-job related obligations, they could feel free to handle them with consequences so long as their work was done. Employees are extended the flexibility to work from home if necessary in order to meet both the needs of the company and their families. The goal of the ROWE program is to keep employees happy and satisfied while also reducing the company’s turnover and raising overall productivity. Approach to Organizational Change Planned organizational change represents a deliberate attempt by leaders and employees to improve the functioning of teams, departments, divisions, or an entire organization in some...
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...“ROWE Program at Best Buy” Assignment #5 Theresa Williams Strayer University August 31, 2011 “ROWE Program at Best Buy” Assignment #5 The culture of Best Buy is one that, I believe, many people would love to be a part of. This “Results-Only Work Environment” program, or ROWE as it is better known, is simply just that – folks are able to work when they please, as long as the work is getting done and results are made. Their main organizational cultural value is to make sure the work is done. It doesn’t matter how long or how short of a time one is physically at work, nor does it matter if an employee is working from home, or from cell phones - the work just needs to be done. Before ROWE was in place, Best Buy was a company that, like many companies, “used to embrace long hours and sacrifice” (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). Employees were in an environment where the longer they stayed at the workplace and worked, sacrificing much time in their personal lives, the more they would be praised for doing “hard work.” For example, it was very difficult for employees to leave work in an emergency situation because everyone was watching each other, constantly keeping track of how much time their peers spent at the office and what they were doing during that time. This caused a lot of stress and unhappiness amongst the organization. Now, the culture of Best Buy is different because of ROWE. Employees are encouraged to only come into the office when needed. There are no...
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...Assignment #5: ROWE Program at Best Buy Describe the culture of Best Buy Best Buy is not the only company that was witnessing this trend in their corporate culture. Unfortunately as the economic situation in the country worsened, and the competition increased, a lot of companies had to strive to meet the demands of the business. Every company was trying and is trying to produce the goods or services faster than the others and at the lower cost. This enormous stress is falling on the workforce. As the result, “the number of people in the United States who say they are overworked has been rising from 28% in 2001 to 44% in 2009”, according to the Families and Work Institute (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). The ROWE program introduced a philosophy which changed Best Buy’s culture from one that embraced long hours and self-sacrifice at the expense of the employees’ health to one that is more relaxed and yielded greater productivity. As participants of the ROWE program, employees no longer have to worry about punching time clocks, being available for in impromptu meetings or staying past their normal working hours to finish a report that could actually wait until the next day (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). Instead, participants controlled their work scheduled not management. The new cultural philosophy is based on 13 principles and rules which allow employees more flexibility to accomplish their jobs. There is no longer a focus on how employees spent their time or how many hours...
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...1 ROWE Program at Best Buy Leadership and Organizational Behavior – BUS520 Professor Karmetria Burton Strayer University Ketty Bryan December 8, 2010 ROWE Program at Best Buy Culture is the dominant pattern of living, thinking, feeling and believing that is developed and transmitted by people, consciously and unconsciously to subsequent generations. Best Buy culture frees corporate employees to work whenever and however they want as long as they get results. It allows employees to decide how, when and where they get the job done. They can choose to work in the office or somewhere else. Meetings are optional and there are no schedules. The freedom has helped employees to be more productive. The company’s culture used to embrace long hours and sacrifice. One boss gave a plaque to an employee for turning the lights on in the morning and turning it off at night. Darrell Owens, a 14 year veteran, once stayed up for three days in a row to write a report that was due. He got a bonus and a vacation but ended up in the hospital. Women were accepting reduced pay and status of a part time position but doing the same work because it was the only way to get the flexibility they needed. For a culture to exist, it must be shared by the vast majority of the members of a major group or...
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...The culture of Best Buy reflects a traditional business to being a more contemporary, flexible work schedule. Before the ROWE program, many workers were tired of being overworked, not being able to spend quality time with their families. It seemed like the employees worked on their day off, come in early, leave late to make deadlines and it was just overall stressful. As stated the company’s culture used to embraced long hours and sacrifice (Hellriegel/Slocum, 2011 p. 553). With all of this coming into play Best Buy chose to implement a new structure to help motivate the workers called the ROWE program. The number of people in the United States who say they are overworked as been rising from 28 percent of Americans in 2001 to 44 percent in 2009, according to Families and Work Institute. Instead of launching a “work-life balance” program, Best Buy rethought the very concept of work. Under the Results-Only Work Environment program, ROWE. Here the employees can work when and where they like, as long as they get the job done. (Hellriegel/Slocum, 2011 p. 553). The ROWE program consists of 13 principles and rules, the key ones are: There are no work schedules in the traditional sense, every meeting is optional, with a few key exceptions, employees are not to judge how colleagues spend their time, thus there is no focus on “how many hours did you work.”, Work is not a place you go , it’s something you do, as long as the work gets done, employees do whatever they want whenever...
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...ROWE Program at Best Buy Shannon Goodwin Strayer University Leadership and Organizational Behavior Bus 520 Dr. Willidean Wilkerson June 14, 2011 ROWE Program at Best Buy 1. Describe the culture of Best Buy. Ever heard the cliché’ all work and no play? Well, this cliché’ was once the culture of Buy Best. Working day in and day out, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, was the norm for the employees at Buy Best. At least, this is how the employees felt prior to the implementation of the Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE) program. The ROWE program introduced a philosophy which changed Best Buy’s culture from one that embraced long hours and self-sacrifice at the expense of the employees’ health to one that is more relaxed and yielded greater productivity. As participants of the ROWE program, employees no longer have to worry about punching time clocks, being available for in impromptu meetings or staying past their normal working hours to finish a report that could actually wait until the next day (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). Instead, participants controlled their work scheduled not management. The new cultural philosophy is based on 13 principles and rules which allow employees more flexibility to accomplish their jobs. There is no longer a focus on how employees spent their time or how many hours they worked. As long as the work was completed, how and when do not matter. Hellreigh and Slocum (2011) stated it this way, “ROWE...
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...Assignment #5: “ROWE Program at Best Buy” BUS/520 Nadine Gilles September 3, 2011 Dr. Dominique Sweeting 1. Describe the culture of Best Buy. Jody Thompson helped to pioneer the Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE) at Best Buy Corporation. The creation of this program was fundamental in the introduction of the Culture Rx Concept. Organizational culture is made up of the ideas and values shared by the employees of an organization. In the Best Buy organizational culture, there was a minimal amount of values being shared. The negative environment at Best Buy prevented the employees from bonding. There was not that much time available for employees to interact with each other. A survey was conducted to know the attitude of employees participating in ROWE. It was found that they felt pressured and felt they had to work hard. Employee’s lack of time to manage their work and consult with coworkers hindered the growth in all the divisions of Best Buy. Before ROWE was implemented at Best Buy, employee morale was very low and the turnover rate was very high. Employees were called to last minute meetings by management and were assigned to complete last minute reports with little or no notice. Most employees did not get to spend much time with their families and worked from home as well as in the office. The culture prior to ROWE was work at all times and make sacrifices for your job. With Rowe in place, employees had flexibility to work from home or the office, as long as the job...
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...Describe the culture of Best Buy. Best Buy, embraced a culture of long hours and sacrifice. Employees had been known to not sleep for a number of days just to get the job done, even some women were accepting part time hours and reduced pay with the same amount of work because that was the only way to get family flexibility. Presently, Best Buy has adopted a very different and manageable culture; the ROWE program which stands for Results-Only Work Environment. This program was able to reduce stress and manage overworking in their employees. Jennifer Janssen who works in the finance department was faced with a problem with one of their suppliers regarding non-payment and this problem had to be resolved by the end of the day. Janssen, a mother of twins was scheduled to pick up her children from day care that evening, also debated on if she had to pass this issue to an associate of hers in order to leave in time however without hesitation Jenssen left work as expected without any questions asked. Janssen knew she was able to provide flexibility and get the work done from home and also care for family all in the same evening without guilt for having to leave. So under ROWE “results only work environment) allows employees can work when and where they like, as long as they get the job done. Overall results of the ROWE program has been favorable and encouraging as voluntary turn- over has decreased remarkably and now Best Buy has developed a division called Culture X to tailor...
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...1 Rowe Program at Best Buy Joyce Henry Dr. Sherrie Lu, PhD BUS 520: Organizational Behavior December 12, 2010 2 Introduction Competitive businesses face the challenge of being docile and successful organizations. The tasks are multifaceted when attempting to comprehend and accomplish organizational change. Employees have to adjust rapidly and leaders have to be proficient in order to be successful. The demands for change are important in the success or failure of an organization. The globalization of markets, technology advancement, increased developments of social networks, and generational differences are the most important reasons. The cultures of organizations help determine their need for change. However, the employees have to acknowledge that there is a need for change. The resistance to change may occur, if so the causes need to be recognized. Best Buy has taken an organizational change for the improvement of its employees’ productivity. This paper will discuss Best Buy’s culture, the ROWE program implemented and the resistance to the change as a result of the ROWE program. This paper will also discuss the stress that occurred and whether or not the organizational culture has helped with the change. 3 Describe the Culture of Best Buy. An organization that practices formality, rules, standard operating procedures, and hierarchical coordination has a bureaucratic culture (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011, p. 490.). The members of this type of this culture...
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...ROWE Program at Best Buy Tracey D. Battle Strayer University Leadership & Organizational Behavior BUS 520 Professor Bruce Macdonald December 12, 2011 Abstract Best Buy introduced the ROWE Program to reduce stress and overwork in their employees at their headquarters. The agenda basically allows you to work from anywhere, any hours you choose, as long as the job gets done. The staff at Best Buy’s headquarters generally worked long hours until the ROWE curriculum was introduced. Member of staff burnout and turnover was high. After the ROWE Program’s implementation, productivity has increased and voluntary turnover has decreased. Jody Thompson pioneered the Result-Only Work Environment (ROWE) in the Best Buy Corporation. This action was instrumental in introducing the concept of culture Rx. Culture Rx offered a customized consultancy services as per the needs of the clients with ROWE as its core philosophy. Organizational society depends upon the sharing of core values among the maximum numbers of people in any organization. There was minimum sharing of values among the employee members in the Best Buy managerial culture. The negative environment prevailing in the organizational premises inhibited the bonding among the human resource. There was not much time available for employees to interact with each other. A survey was conducted to know the attitude of staff participating in ROWE. It was found that their “feelings of pressure” and sense of “working hard” had...
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...1. Describe the culture at Best Buy Traditionally corporate culture in Best Buy embraced long hours and personal sacrifice. (Hellriegel, D., & Slocum, J. W., Jr., 2011). Employees were often recognized not based on their actual performance, but on how much time they spend at their work. This lead to overstressing among employees, fear of judgement if they did have to leave the work to take care of some personal problems. Employees would often choose to be employed part-time because they knew that this is the only way that can get flexibility necessary to take care of their families and personal life. Employees were left overworked physically, overstressed emotionally because of the constant work vs. personal life conflict that a lot of them had to face, and as well because of the pressure to perform at the level higher than their capacity. Best Buy is not the only company that was witnessing this trend in their corporate culture. Unfortunately as the economic situation in the country worsened, and the competition increased, a lot of companies had to strive to meet the demands of the business. Every company was trying and is trying to produce the goods or services faster than the others and at the lower cost. This enormous stress is falling on the workforce. As the result, “the number of people in the United States who say they are overworked has been rising from 28% in 2001 to 44% in 2009”, according to the Families and Work Institute (Hellriegel, D., & Slocum, J. W., Jr....
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...Corporate Culture at Best Buy Lydia Rosebush Strayer University March 13, 2011 Describe the culture at Best Buy. Best Buy is actively trying to change the culture of the company by implementing the “Results-Only Work Environment” program or ROWE for short. Prior to the implementation of ROWE, the culture at Best Buy was one of very high turnover, and employee dissatisfaction. “The company culture used to embrace long hours and sacrifice” (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2010, p. 553). Employees often felt as if they had to stay and work until all problems were solved and solutions were in place. It was a culture of work, work, work and more work. Colleagues judged each other on how they spent their time. Employees felt like they were required to choose work over family in order to move up in the company (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2010). Best Buy implemented the optional ROWE program in 2003. In 2009 about 75 percent of the 4,000 employees at Best Buy’s corporate headquarters had decided to participate. The program stresses flexibility and results. One of the key principles of the ROWE program is, “as long as work gets done, employees do whatever they want whenever they want” (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2010, p. 553). Employees now feel like they have the freedom to schedule work around their life at home. After some skepticism by the company’s top executives, the culture at Best Buy is changing to one that focuses more on the results that are achieved than the time...
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...Abstract In this paper we will be reviewing a program called Rowe or Results-Only Work Environment. This program was first used in 2003 by Best Buy. The system was a success. The basic concept of Rowe is to take some of the pressure off the employees by relieving the stress from over working and allowing the employees to create their own work schedules. By doing this the company improved morally, decreased turnover and reduced stress. The ROWE program allows employees to work on their own time and from anywhere they were most comfortable. It gave employees the freedom to work as many and as little hours as they wanted as long as the job was complete and it reached the targeted goals. Before this program was implemented, employees tended to work long hours and were burnout, which caused the high turnover. Best Buy faced many challenges while implementing the ROWE program. Challenges included meeting the prerequisites for the company’s success. In this paper I will also discuss Best Buy being able to implement the policy in all their locations and the pros and cons of that decision. "ROWE Program at Best Buy" Culture of Best Buy Best Buy has implemented the Result-Only Work Environment or ROWE which was established by Jody Thompson. Before the ROWE system, Best Buy employees were known for working long hours and a substantial amount of overtime. The employees were over worked which affected the company as a whole. With this system in place employees have more...
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